Health Insurance and Your Taxes

Under the Affordable Care Act, most Americans are required to maintain health insurance coverage throughout the year. Your fulfillment of this requirement is documented when you file your taxes. Here’s what you need to know about health insurance and your 2015 taxes:

If you had coverage all year, just check the box on your tax return.

If you had coverage through your employer or through a government program like Medicaid or Medicare, you might receive a form 1095-B or 1095-C. These forms show that you had health coverage. You do not need to wait for these forms to file your taxes.

If you had coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace, you will receive a form 1095-A. This form shows the amount of advanced premium tax credit (subsidies) that was paid on your behalf to the insurer for each month of Marketplace coverage. You will use your 1095-A to complete the form 8962 to reconcile your tax credits.

If the tax credit amount on your 1095-A is less than the actual premium tax credit for which you are eligible (based on your final 2015 income), you will get the difference back in your taxes. In other words, you made less than you predicted and should have received a higher monthly tax credit.

If the tax credit amount on your 1095-A is more than the actual premium tax credit amount for which you are eligible, you will need to pay the difference back. In other words, you made more than you predicted and got too much tax credit.

Note: If you did not receive tax credits, you do not need to reconcile.

If you made changes to your Marketplace coverage during the year, you will receive more than one 1095-A.

If you didn’t have coverage for all or part of 2015, you can complete a form 8965 to see if you qualify for an exemption from the shared responsibility payment. Types of exemptions available include:

Affordability

Brief lapse in coverage

Incarceration

Living abroad

Income was under the filing threshold

Hardship

If you don’t qualify for an exemption, you will owe a shared responsibility payment. If you were not covered at all in 2015, your payment will be the greater of:

$325 per adult + $162.50 per child

2% of household income

Note: These numbers will increase in 2016

If you had coverage for some months in 2015, and do not qualify for an exemption for the uncovered months, you will be charged the shared responsibility payment only for the months during which you did not have coverage.

The Assisters at MVA invite anyone who has questions about tax credits, the 1095-A, exemptions, or how to get coverage to call 304-367-8759 for more information. To learn about other services that MVA’s Assisters provide, click here.